"In Sick Airmen, Echo of '66 Nuclear Crash: Hydrogen Bomb's Aftermath" (NYTS Headline)
If you have read our recent Posts and today's New York Times front page investigative report, Nuclear Weapons are in the news again. Nuclear Weapons incidents tend to ricochet through time and space. This "accident" in Palomares left behind a trail of radioactive bread crumbs through fifty years from Spain to the U.S. in the form of declassified documents and destroyed lives. Front page fifty years ago, 1966, front page again today, 2016.
These Nuclear Weapons incidents never really vanish down history's black hole despite the efforts of the "authorities", at the time, later and now, to make them do so.
Four H-Bombs dropping from a plane after a midair collision over Palomares. Seven of the eleven crew members on the two planes perished in crash. The NYTS report mentions a similar incident over Greenland two years later. See Blog Post Below: Reading the Bomb mentioning Command and Control by Eric Schlosser now also an Academy Award nominated documentary available on DVD for an extensive, readable/watchable scary account of the "near-nuclear miss" accidents and incidents over the years which may leave you reeling after each incident, thinking, "That can't be right!"
The NYTS report and the exposure of these near Armageddon incidents reveal the secrecy, misconduct and deceit of the authorities involved in the incidents and in their cover-ups.
First, they offer the assurance that "Everything is all right." Then the cover-up kicks into high gear. Then, the "PR" apparatus. In the Palomares incident the local people and our own troops were victims of the subterfuge. (See Chernobyl incident for similar official nonsense in the then Soviet Union)
Two of the four bombs exploded but did not detonate. If they had, we would be commemorating the 50th anniversary of something horrifically different. But explode they did - leaving craters as big as a house. Today, the scattering of that much dangerous plutonium would be referred to as a "dirty bomb" requiring evacuation of the area. But that did not happen. Instead, the local populace and our military veterans, who were charged with the "clean up", were placed directly in harm's way. The NYTS report indicates that today there are still fenced off areas in and around Palomares. Today, there are still surviving U.S. veterans awaiting recognition and the awarding of claims by our government.
As one of our veterans stated: "They told us everything was safe. We trusted them. The whole thing is a lie. Why would they lie?" It was only in 2015 that our government agreed to a "clean up" of the contaminated area. But to date - there is neither a timetable nor a plan in place.
For letters to the editor on this SEE: NYTS JUNE 27,2016:
One more reason to Get Angry! Wake Up! Post! Tweet! Comment! Contact your elected officials! Vote!
Every minute that Nuclear Weapons are still with us is a minute awaiting an "accident", "incident", "miscalculation" or deliberate, intentional use.
ABOLITION IN OUR TIME!